The Labyrinth An Angel Sanctuary fanfiction by laila

Chapter 7

If he had possessed a watch Setsuna would have been looking at it intently, to try and find out how long he had spent in the company of Mad Hatter without succumbing to the delicious temptations of curling up into a corner and starting to babble softly to himself. It wasn't so much that she was scary, it was more that she was just so weird that it was making his poor abused brain want to give up the ghost completely. But mainly it was because every time he wasn't quite sure what way to go it was decided for him on the toss of a coin - and that he actually seemed to be making far better progress now than he had been when he was relying on his own judgment. Realizing that decisions made completely at random were working better than his own reasoned judgment had been was a bit of a blow to Setsuna's masculine pride.

At least Mad Hatter didn't seem to want to talk much. That probably meant that she didn't find him sexually alluring which would have been insulting if it hadn't been such a relief.

"Heads or tails?" she said again, pulling the ever-present coin out of her pocket.

Setsuna, who had been lost in his own grim speculations and enjoying it there, shook himself mentally. Ah, another of those two-door puzzles, was it? He wondered if this was like the logic puzzle that Zaphkiel and Raziel had presided over earlier and which he had enjoyed so much.

"Well, I like that!"

The voice was that of a young girl and it sounded like it came from the wall above them. As Setsuna and his strange companion watched it's owner, a dark-skinned teenager with a single useless wing, jumped down to land in front of one of the doors, followed by a boy of the same age, obviously her twin, who stood in front of the other. Noise and Voice: well, if they were there, that meant Kurai had to be around here somewhere and Setsuna was beginning to hope she was. At least Kurai was a friend. At least he knew she wouldn't try and double-cross him. At that Setsuna gave Mad Hatter a sidelong glance but she seemed very interested in Noise for some reason - Setsuna hardly liked to wonder why - and he decided not to say anything.

Noise didn't really seem to have noticed Mad Hatter's scrutiny; she was a bit too angry. "We stand here by these doors day in day out, never seeing anybody, bored out of our minds, and then when someone does come along it's heads or tails! I don't know!" She planted her hands firmly on her hips and glowered up at Setsuna. "I think we should make him stay here, neechan." Voice said irritably, giving Setsuna an even dirtier look than his sister was. "I'm sorry!" Setsuna said hastily, since Mad Hatter hardly seemed inclined to apologize. "We were wondering which door to choose and since we don't know where we're going…" Voice just snorted angrily as if he had expected no less from Setsuna but at least he had managed to make Noise giggle slightly. "Well, I suppose that explains the coin thing. Was it…" she looked a little dubiously at Mad Hatter as if she was trying to figure out what on earth she actually was, largely because that was exactly what she was doing, "your, um, friend's idea?" "Well it certainly wasn't mine." Setsuna said. "And if she asks you to pick a card don't do it or we'll never get out of here." "Why do you have a demon with you anyway?" Voice asked suddenly. "Why should we let you through? Princess is through there somewhere-" aha, thought Setsuna, that's good, "and that thing might attack her!" "One has no intention of harming the Princess." Mad Hatter said calmly. "And why should I believe a word you say?" Voice said crossly. "You shouldn't." Mad Hatter replied, rather ruining any effect her last comment may have had. "Well I'm not letting you past then!" Voice yelled, and leant against his door with his arms folded.

Noise, who had been watching the confrontation with a long-suffering older sister's frown on her face, shook her head when Voice flung himself back against his door. Once these two were gone she would have to have a word with him; he was really embarrassing her! Younger brothers were so stupid some of the time… well, okay, all of the time.

"It's no use trying to talk to him, Messiah. He hates you," she said with a glare that told Voice he was really going to be in for it as soon as they were alone again. "Um, okay." Setsuna said. "Which way do these doors go then?" Noise shrugged. "Don't ask me, we're just the gatekeepers." She leant against the wall next to her door, regarding them both through slightly narrowed eyes. Okay, the blonde boy seemed nice enough, a bit vague maybe, but what was with that guy he was with? Or maybe it was a woman. Whatever the stranger turned out to be they were weirding her out.

Setsuna sighed again, and turned back to Mad Hatter. "Oh. Great. Now what do we do? Any ideas?" "One wonders if one might venture a suggestion." Mad Hatter said. Setsuna looked at her suspiciously, but decided there was nothing for it. "Go ahead." "Messiah, one thinks that if you really are serious about rescuing your sister, it might be an idea to stop procrastinating." Oh great, Mad Hatter was pissed off. But she had a point. "Okay, I guess so…" he said, and walked over to Noise and Voice.

Naturally enough, he chose Noise's door. She wasn't standing in front of it and she wasn't glaring at him like she would try and rip his arm off the minute he walked up to her. She even gave him a friendly half-smile as he opened the door and entered the next part of the labyrinth, though she pressed herself against the wall when letting Mad Hatter through. She didn't want to get close to that one.

The door hadn't even swung shut behind them before Setsuna heard Noise start loudly rebuking Voice for his rudeness; the slam of the door broke her stride not one bit and certainly her comments were only slightly muffled. Shaking his head, Setsuna decided that the best thing to do would be to get out of there to somewhere quieter and hope that whatever comment Mad Hatter might want to make, given the look on her face, she would keep it strictly to herself.

But of course she wasn't about to do anything of the sort.

"Messiah, one wonders," she said apropos of nothing when they had been walking for a few minutes more and Setsuna had begun to hope that she was going to let whatever it was lie, "about your attitude to your sister." "Really." Setsuna said tersely. "What about it?" "You claim you want to rescue her and yet one feels you're hardly rushing to her aid." Setsuna growled. "And whose fault is that? God, this stupid labyrinth! If it wasn't for this I'd have rescued her already!" "You really think that?" Mad Hatter asked him quizzically, then added more to herself than anything, "Amazing how easily humans delude themselves…" "What do you mean 'delude'?" Setsuna asked angrily, spinning round to face her. "I love Sara and I am going to rescue her!" "So you say." Mad Hatter replied smoothly. "And yet you prolong the delays. Thefore, one cannot help but wonder. Often it takes a stranger to see these things." Setsuna gritted his teeth in irritation. "There's nothing to see! I love her!" He yelled furiously. Mad Hatter raised one eyebrow and surveyed him infuriatingly calmly. "It was merely a suggestion," she said, pulling a pale blue rose from her sleeve and handing it to him. "Give this to the Princess with my regards."

That said, she walked off through one of the walls.

Setsuna stood there for a moment or two, staring at the wall rather dumbly before it occurred to him that maybe this was another of the illusory walls that Arakune had pointed out to him. He'd walked into it and was rubbing his head for the nth time when he remembered that Mad Hatter was a demon and seldom bothered using doors when the walls or floor would do just as well.

Okay, so he was alone again and this was no bad thing. That was exactly what had worried Setsuna about taking up with Mad Hatter! It wasn't enough that she was a complete nymphomaniac who enjoyed using her lovers, she had to go around sowing the seeds of doubt in other people's happy relationships too! About the only good thing about her, he thought, was she hadn't given a damn about Sara being his sister and his lover but that was probably because she honestly didn't care about things like that. And that was probably because she was a demon. Well, he was better off without Mad Hatter and he didn't care anyway and it wasn't like it was his fault that he couldn't rescue Sara quicker!

Maybe, a little voice inside him murmured, you're only feeling so defensive because you can't admit she hasn't got a point… maybe you're not as fond of Sara as you think you are. Maybe everyone else was right and you were only interested in Sara because she was nearby… or maybe Katou was right and it was only because you were vain…

No, that wasn't it! Damn Mad Hatter, getting into his head like this. Quickly he brushed himself down, discovering as he did so a small black feather resting on one of his sleeves. No wonder he was in such a bad mood if she'd been sticking her feathers onto him. Why did Mad Hatter have to be so irritating and manipulative? Well, he supposed she was a demon and that was just the kind of thing that they did…it was still annoying, though. Aggravated, he stalked off down the corridor muttering imprecations that, for the first time in several hours, were not aimed at Rociel.

"That bitch Mad Hatter… how dare she say I'm not trying hard enough! I'll give her 'not trying'! So what if everyone I meet insists on talking at me before they consent to help me! I'm doing this as fast as I can… I'd like to see anyone else manage this any quicker than I've been doing…"

"But you're not running, are you?"

Setsuna stopped short, entire body tensing in shock as he spun round to face the intruder, the expression on his face an alarming mix of anxiety and anger. Not this again, not now! He just couldn't handle much more of this!

"You again!" Setsuna yelled furiously. "Yes, me again." Rociel said with a smile, flipping his hair from his shoulder. "Of course. This is my Labyrinth." Setsuna couldn't help but notice that he'd changed his clothing yet again, this time to a whole lot of tight black leather, a white shirt and high-heeled boots. This time he seemed to be going for the 'model in search of a photographer' look. The way he was positioned hardly helped - half-lying in a posed kind of way on top of a heavily-verdigrised statue of a rampant lion, one hand on its head, resting his chin on the other; hardly the attitude, Setsuna thought, of a lord and master. But maybe that was kind of the point. He wondered how long it had taken Rociel to come up with it. Probably not long. Or, on the other hand, an unconscionable period of time. Neither would have come as that much of a shock. Still, small mercies: at least he wasn't lying on his back. That would have just been alarming.

"Good God, and I thought you looked like a hooker earlier?" Setsuna asked, momentarily feeling a little thrown off balance. "What on Earth do you think you're wearing?" Rociel frowned. "Come now, don't tell me I came all this way just so we could trade clothing tips. But whilst we're on the subject, that shirt doesn't go with the jacket." "All this way?" Setsuna asked, feeling his heart sink. "You mean I'm still nowhere near the center of this thing?" "Of course not. You still have several hours left. Did you really think this would be that simple?" As he spoke, Rociel had started stroking the head of the stone lion.

Setsuna fumed. For a couple of moments he considered forcing Nanatsusaya out of the pendant again so that he could have it out with Rociel here and now and bugger the rest of this ridiculous game, but of course he couldn't do that, he realized, as his mind returned almost immediately to a topic that was never far from it.

"What have you done with Sara?" he asked angrily. Rociel flipped his hair back behind his shoulder before he spoke again "She is quite safe," he said with a malicious smile. "Sevotharte is watching over her." "Sevotharte?!" Setsuna echoed in shock. "You got Sevotharte to watch Sara? My God!" "He will not harm her." Rociel said sedately. "Sevotharte! I can't believe this… why, you monster! Give back Sara now!"

Rociel frowned; all of a sudden he was feeling very irritated. Oh look, here's Rociel. I don't like him very much. What devastating insult should I launch at him today? I know, I'll call him a monster and I may or may not prefix 'beautiful' to that remark. Just like almost all of the other people who have ever felt the need to insult him for whatever reason. Just like the way he thinks of himself. Because stating the bloody obvious is such an effective way to insult someone. Good grief, this was becoming a really boring conversation.

"Can't you get a new line?" he asked petulantly. "What?" Setsuna blinked. "Stop calling me a monster, it's getting very old. Call me something a bit more imaginative next time, like… Oh, I don't know. You're a moderately intelligent boy, I'm sure you'll think of something." Setsuna frowned deeply. "Who cares! Why can't you just give me Sara back since you can't even be bothered to watch her?" Rociel laughed in a way that implied to anyone watching that he was clearly quite insane. "Because she's still useful, up to a point. Because I like seeing you struggle and you wouldn't do this if I didn't have her." "True," Setsuna admitted grudgingly, but Rociel clearly hadn't finished yet. "Because you've still got almost eight hours to go. Because I really can't think of anything else to do today. But most of all…" He leant forward and tilted Setsuna's chin up with two fingers; Setsuna was momentarily too startled to do anything about it, "But most of all because it's fun. Alexiel." "Setsuna!" Setsuna yelled, jerking his head back and away from Rociel's hand. "My name is Setsuna! You could at least call me by the right bloody name!" "Your name is Alexiel." Rociel said, caressing the stone lion again. "You're just in denial. And now you must excuse me. I have some urgent business to attend to." "Good!" Setsuna yelled. "Go to it! Just remember this, Rociel! I'm going to rescue Sara, and then I'm going to make you pay for this!" Rociel smiled. "I know you will, Alexiel. And I'll be waiting for you."

He stood, jumped from the lion's back onto the top of one of the walls, and was gone leaving Setsuna fuming, even more irritated than he had been before, and if anything only even more determined to rescue his sister. How could Rociel leave the poor girl with Sevotharte?

Setsuna set off down the corridor again, incensed. He'd show Rociel. In fact, he'd show them all.

From his perch on the balcony of an ornamental tower that had probably seemed to this place's designers like a good idea at the time, Rociel watched him go. Alexiel had seemed irritated. Well good, he should be. What would the point of this be if he wasn't managing to get under the boy's skin somehow? Still, that wasn't important right now. Not when he had another visit to pay.

Lucifel. Where was that wretched man? He had to be here somewhere. If Rociel had guessed right, he would be trying to find Alexiel again after abandoning him a while ago. He was probably feeling guilty, Rociel suspected, for leaving Alexiel to deal with Beliel alone. Well, that Rociel suspected he could work with. He had given Lucifel an order to fulfill and he had disobeyed. He had warned him what would happen if he still failed to carry out the order and he had still hesitated. That provided Rociel with a convenient little hold over the man and he intended to make use of it.

Of course he could just have Lucifel discreetly killed, but what would the fun be in that?

Speaking of which, where had he left the… Rociel reached into his back pocket, wishing momentarily that he had worn his uniform which at least was rather more practical in that regard. No, it wasn't in there, so where… oh, that was right, he hadn't actually got round to creating the thing yet, that was why he didn't have it. Honestly, he was getting so absent-minded. It was just one of the down sides to being so deliciously insane, he noted with a sigh.

For once, simply for effect, Rociel had his wings spread. Heaven knew how he was managing that without ruining a perfectly decent shirt but that didn't really matter. It was a simple enough matter to tug a feather free - even if it did hurt and quite a lot too, but it was all a means to an end, right? - and watch the way it changed in his hand. And to think all it took was a little concentration to get the thing looking quite different from the form his feathers normally assumed. Holding it up, Rociel watched the thing sparkle in the light and he smiled completely humorlessly. Perfect. He slipped it back in his pocket for the moment and carried on looking for Lucifel, finally spotting him a few hundred yards away from Alexiel. Even taking into account the vagaries of the paths they would very likely be meeting up soon, largely because they were both heading in the same direction.

He was probably looking for her anyway. Now that really wouldn't do. Not whilst he didn't have Alexiel's… call it her present.

"Where in the hell is he?" Kira muttered under his breath. He shouldn't have done that. God, no matter how badly he didn't want to see that whacko Mad Hatter, how could he have abandoned Setsuna to her less-than-tender mercies? If the woman hadn't got them hopelessly lost, then she had probably double-crossed him and left him to Rociel or pinned him to the wall and tried to ravish him. So he should definitely not have left.

If he listened carefully he could hear the mellifluous sound of Setsuna cursing the air blue. All he had to do was follow those dulcet tones and he would be able to reach the boy and help him out again. All he had to do in order to do just that was find him… something that was far easier said than done in this bloody stupid labyrinth. No wonder Setsuna had been in such a bloody awful mood… not that Kira himself was in a much better one.

"Setsuna!" he called impulsively, then immediately wished he hadn't when someone stood behind him coughed discreetly. "Going somewhere, Lucifel?" Rociel asked, cocking his head to one side and gazing at Kira almost inquisitively. He wasn't posed quite so heavily this time, but this was largely because Kira wouldn't have been as receptive to it as Setsuna was. He still had his wings spread though - perhaps because he wanted to look more imposing. Unfortunately for Kira, it was working. "Ah, Rociel-sama." Kira said, affecting a show of unconcern. "I was just looking for Setsuna so I could take him back to the beginning, as per our deal." "Really." Rociel said skeptically. "I really don't want to have to lose my temper with you, Lucifel, so I hope for your sake you're telling me the truth." Kira managed to look quite convincingly surprised. "Now why would I want to do that?" "Perhaps because you were hoping to stick your tongue down my sister's throat again, though why you'd want to I don't know." "You saw that?"

Kira mentally kicked himself the moment he spoke. But of course he'd seen it! Rociel saw pretty much everything that went on in this ridiculous place and it was no doubt why he'd been so angry last time. It probably explained why he was frowning so severely now. For a moment Kira almost felt sorry for him but squashed the feeling almost immediately, largely because Rociel would have been furious if he'd known about it and the last thing he wanted was to make a dangerously psychotic individual like Rociel any madder with him than he was already.

"Yes, I saw you. And the way I see things now," here Rociel took a pace toward him, "I would be quite within my rights to kill you on the spot." "No you wouldn't." Kira replied, frowning in confusion. "You're a lunatic." Rociel carried on as if he hadn't spoken. "Now, I'm not going to do that because I'm in a forgiving mood, though admittedly that is largely because you may still prove useful. So I've decided to give you one last chance to redeem yourself." "What do you mean?" Kira asked. "Didn't I say I was just going to lead Setsuna back to the start of the-" "Yes you did, and what a bore it would be." Rociel yawned theatrically. "I'd rather you helped me out some other way, Lucifel." "Like how?" Kira asked suspiciously. "You are going to give my sister this."

Here Rociel held up an earring in the shape of a rather stylized flower. It was pretty, worryingly so, and yet there was something rather off about it, Kira thought. Maybe it was something about the worryingly slick-looking metal, maybe something about the way the petroleum-green stone in the center shone. It was beautiful, but there was something subtly wrong about the whole thing. Could an earring look evil? Kira thought it probably could.

"How in the hell am I meant to give a boy that?" he asked in surprise. "Come on, aren't you always giving Alexiel jewelry? Necklaces, earrings… that kind of thing?" Kira opened his mouth then hesitated fatally. Damn Rociel! He was right, wasn't he? Setsuna wouldn't even have been surprised were Kira to give him that wretched earring, weird thought it undoubtedly looked… "Don't be ridiculous, he wouldn't accept it." he said finally, but without any real conviction. "Oh really." Rociel stated. He held the earring between finger and thumb, letting it gleam in the light - but that gleam too looked wrong. The metal didn't even look like metal, not really. "She will accept it, Lucifel. I don't care what you say to make her accept it, I don't even care if you beat her senseless and put the thing in her ear yourself. All that matters is you give it to her and she wears it. Or else you'll wish you'd decided to stay dead."

Normally Kira would have said that was too nonspecific to be any kind of threat whatsoever, but coming from Rociel it was. He didn't like admitting it to anybody but there was something about the man that really had him… not scared, he told himself, he was not afraid of anybody! He was just a little… perturbed by him, that was all. Rociel was worrying, if not frightening. Perhaps because this was his country, so to speak, and it never paid to get on the wrong side of a lord in their own domain. Or maybe it was the nail varnish.

"Why can't you give it to him yourself?" he asked finally. This made Rociel laugh. "Now you're being ridiculous! Do you really think that Alexiel would accept anything from me?" "No." Kira said firmly. "No, he wouldn't." "But she will from you." Rociel was still smiling - maliciously and almost triumphantly, Kira thought. Why triumphantly? What was he planning? What would giving him that earring do? "She'll accept it from you. Because she trusts you." You bastard, Kira thought. You cynical, manipulative, evil bastard. Normally he would have said it and damn the consequences… but this could hardly have been called a normal situation, could it? Rociel had him where he wanted him and they both knew it. "It won't hurt him, will it?" he heard himself say, his voice tight. "If it does anything to harm him, Rociel…" "It won't hurt him." Rociel said, not terribly reassuringly given that Kira trusted him about as far as he could comfortably throw him, which even when considering Rociel's rather delicate build wouldn't have been all that far. "Good." Kira said angrily. Without realizing it, his hands had balled into fists.

Rociel still hadn't let fall the hand that held the earring and reluctantly, as if the thing would bite him the minute he touched it, Kira took it. It felt oddly heavy in his hand, too heavy for such a decorative thing anyway. It was weird. Uncanny. And he didn't like it one bit.

"Say what you like, just make sure he takes it." Rociel repeated. Kira glared at him, but he said "Okay. If you insist." He hoped he said it firmly but reluctantly, if that was at all possible. "Oh, and Lucifel?" Rociel had half-turned, as if he were about to leave, but he turned back again. "One more thing. "If you dare kiss her again…" He deliberately left the sentence unfinished but Kira decided to push his luck - in the state it was at the moment what did he have left to lose? Apart, he thought more nervously than he would have admitted, for my ability to speak, my limbs and my life anyway? "What will you do?" "I haven't decided yet." Rociel replied calmly. "But if you have half the sense you were born with, Lucifel, you won't push your luck any further and decide to find out what I've chosen, because you'll certainly live to regret it before I decide to put you out of your misery. Understood?" "Understood." Kira said. "You unprincipled, unscrupulous bitch." "Language, Lucifel."

And, still smiling totally humorlessly, Rociel was gone again, leaving Kira staring after him. The earring still rested in his palm and he looked down at it and shuddered. Give this to Setsuna? But how, knowing what he knew about it, about Rociel? What was he supposed to say? And what in the seven Hells would it do to him if he did? Kira doubted very much that he wanted to know. Shuddering theatrically, he slipped it back into his pocket. Anyway, he couldn't let this distract him. He still had to find Setsuna before the boy got himself in so deep that he'd need rescuing yet again… or before Mad Hatter propositioned him. Wasn't that more important than whatever insane scheme (insane being the correct word for it) Rociel had cooked up this time? Of course it was.

Steeling himself, Kira set back off down the passageway again in search of his missing friend, though he had no idea what he'd do if he found him… but Rociel had the attention span of a six-year-old after all. With any luck Rociel would forget he'd even given him the earring in the fist place.

to be continued